Down to the Wire Sports Chowdah- Lavranway or the Highway in Baltimore; Buffalo Shuffles Off to 3-0 Start After Upsetting Pats

RED SOX: After dropping two out of three at Yankee stadium (their sole win in that series being decided by a Jacoby Ellsbury 3-run homer in the 14th inning late Sunday night) the Red Sox headed headed down to Baltimore for the final series of the regular season. Only the way the Red Sox had been playing in September, it could very well end up being their season finale altogether. Monday night was pretty gruesome, with the Tampa Bay Rays closing the gap, the O's roughing up Beckett and Saltalamacchia leaving the game after taking a foul ball off the throat.

Tuesday night saw ex-O Eric Bedard get the start against his former team, only lasting 3 and ⅓ innings against a persistent Baltimore offense. However, the Red Sox were even rougher on O's starter Zach Britton. In the top of the 3rd, Jacoby Ellsbury let his bat do the arguing for him in the AL MVP discussion, belting a 2-run homer to take a 2-1 lead. However, in the top of the 5th, with Big Pappi and Adrian Gonzalez on base, Red Sox rookie catcher Ryan Lavarnway would increase the lead with a 3-run shot to make it 5-1 Boston- his first big league home run. As sizeable a lead as theat turned out to be, the Red Sox would need even more as Baltimore would counter with a 2 run homer off the bat of catcher Matt Wieters to make it a 2-run game.

In the top of the 6th, Carl Crawford's 1-out triple was followed by a homer off the bat of Marco Scutaro to increase the lead to 7-3 in favor of Boston. Baltimore would respond with a solo homer off the bat of Adam Jones in the bottom of the 6th to make it 7-4.

Leading off the 8th, Lavarnway would double his career homerun total with a solo shot to make it 8-4. After 3 and ⅔ innings, Alfredo Aceves was replaced by Daniel Bard on the mound to face Baltimore. The O's managed to get two runs with two away in the bottom of the 8th to once again make it a two-run game with Boston now leading 8-6.

Things would get even more tense in the bottom of the 9th when Papelbon came on to close out the game and gave up a single to JJ Hardy. Hardy would make his way to 2nd on a Markakis groundout and then to 3rd on a Vlad Guerrero single, reaching home on a Matt Weiters bunt that Lavarnway threw to 1st for the out. Papelbon would then get JJ Hardy to ground out to end the ballgame by the final of 8-7.

It was a win they would need, too, as the Tampa Bay Rays managed to hold off a late rally by the Yankees to preserve the tie for the AL Wild Card (the Angels were eliminated from contention on Monday night).

Wednesday's game- the final of the regular season- will have Jon Lester (15-9; 3.49 ERA) going up against Alfredo Simon (4-9; 4.85 ERA). The Red Sox need a win to at least force a 1-game playoff with the Rays on Thursday- Tampa is going up against a Yankees team that's already clinched the AL East and aside from determining who makes the playoff roster doesn't have alot to play for.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: According to gossip site TMZ.com, Red Sox starter John Lackey and his wife are filing for divorce. Court papers were reportedly filed in Texas last month citing 'conflict of personalities'.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Over in the National League, the Wild Card there hasn't been determined either. The St Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves are deadlocked for the NL Wild Card with one game remaining for each team (Atlanta has the Phillies while St Louis has the Astros). If the deadlock in the standings remains unbroken by tomorrow night, then there will be a 1-game playoff in St. Louis on Thursday night.

Reportedly, if a one game playoff is required for the AL or NL Wild card, the game will be televised on TBS. First pitch would be 4:07 PM ET in Tampa for the Red Sox and Rays and 8:07 PM ET in St. Louis for Braves/Cardinals.

WHITE SOX: White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen was released from his duties by the White Sox this week. There had been speculation that Guillen wasnt long for the organization as well as rumors that he was interested in becoming the manager of the Florida Marlins. This seemed to be confirmed by Guillen himself via twitter as he informed followers about his arrival in Miami.


NFL: For the first time since 2003, the Buffalo Bills have managed to defeat the New England Patriots. Although the Patriots managed to get out to a 21-0 lead early in the 2nd quarter, the Bills managed to whittle that down to 21-10 by halftime. Buffalo would come back to tie the game at 24-24 early in the 4th before taking the lead when CB Drayton Florence ran back a Brady INT for a quick 6 on New Engalnd's following possession.

The Patriots would then take nearly 7 minutes to march down the field, tying the game up on a 6 yard pass from Brady to Welker on 4th and goal with 3:25 left in the 4th. However, that would be enough time for Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to engineer an 80-yard drive that sputtered at the one, but all that was needed was a chip shot FG from Bills kicker Rian Lindell as time expired to give Buffalo the 34-31 win.

So heading into week 4, Buffalo stands alone atop the AFC East (Sunday's meeting was the Bills 1st matchup of the season against an division opponent). As a measure of consolation, the Jets would go on to lose against the Oakland Raiders that afternoon as well.

Speaking of Oakland, the Patriots will travel to the East Bay to take on the Raiders this Sunday. The game will be televised on CBS and kicks off at 4:15 PM ET, 1:15 PM PT.

NBA: With players not reporting to training camp at the usual time due to the lockout, the NBA has postponed training camp indefinitely and cancelled 43 preseason games. Meetings between the league and player's association ended without a collective bargaining agreement last week, putting the preseason games and possibly the start of the regular season in doubt.

Cup Half Full of Sports Chowdah for September 16- Beckett's Performance Offers Ray of Hope; Cyclones Move Into Connecticut

RED SOX: After Wakefield's 200th career win earlier this week, the Red Sox continued to struggle- splitting their 2-game series against Toronto and dropping this weekend's series opener against the Rays on Thursday night.

With Red Sox nation teetering on the brink of all-out panic (OK- slight exaggeration) Friday night's game marked Beckett's first start since leaving early in the September 5th game against the Toronto Blue Jays with a sprained right ankle.

Friday night's game also left them without Youkilis in the lineup, after Terry Francona announced that the hobbled third baseman would be sitting out Friday night's game- and possible Saturday's as well. Youkilis had been sidelined with a sore hip and sports hernia earlier this month.

While not a must-win game just yet, the Red Sox had only won a grand total of three games in the month of September and the Rays had gained considerable ground on them in the Wild Card standings last week. All this bad news seemed to be compounded when with a runner on in the top of the 1st, Rays 3B Evan Longoria launched a 2 run shot to immediately put Tampa Bay up 2-0. However, Boston would come right back in the bottom of the first with the equalizers in the form of a pair of RBI singles (one from Pedroia and one from Big Papi) off of Rays starter James Shields to tie things up at 2-2.

In the top of the 3rd, the Rays would once again pull ahead thanks to Longoria, this time in the form of a less dramatic RBI single. However, in the Red Sox half of the frame, Big Papi would once again knot the contest up thanks to an RBI double, leaving things at 3-3.

Acquired at the trade deadline from Kansas City and filling in for Youkilis at the hot corner, Mike Aviles couldn't have picked a better time for his first home run as a member of the Red Sox in the bottom of the 4th inning. Aviles' solo homer hit the first 'O' in the middle of the Sports Authority sign to give the Red Sox the 4-3 lead.

And that was all the offense either team could muster. Beckett would go 6 innings, striking out 6 and walking one while Aceves and Bard would hold the lead for Papelbon to come on in the top of the 9th. Although the first two outs came pretty easily, Papelbon gave up a 2-out single to OF BJ Upton, bringing up Evan Longoria as the possible go-ahead run. After the Rays 3B fouled off a couple of offerings, Papelbon managed to strike him out to preserve the 4-3 win

The Red Sox needed this one on a couple of different levels- obvious implications about the AL East and Wild Card aside, Boston's bullpen needed to demonstrate that they could hold a lead in a close ballgame against a capable offense in a meaningful game.

Meanwhile, the Yankees lost in Toronto, making it a 3 ½ game division lead for the Bronx Bombers in the AL East while the Angels lost to Baltimore, so Anaheim fails to gain any ground on Tampa Bay in the Wild Card standings.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: The Detroit Tigers have won their first division title since 1987 on Friday night with a 3-1 road win against the Oakland A's. The Tigers advanced to the World Series in 2006 after clinching the Wild Card only to lose to the St Louis Cardinals. The Tigers become the first team in either the AL or NL to clinch a division title int he 2011 season.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The UConn Huskies lost their second game in a row, this time to the undefeated Iowa State Cyclones. The Cyclones went ahead by a score of 24-20 at around the 9 minute mark of the 4th quarter and managed to run the clock out to go 3-0. UConn is now 1-2 and will travel to Buffalo next week to take on the Bulls (currently 1-1) at 6PM ET.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NCAA: #4 Boise State dispatched the Toledo Rockets of the Mid America conference pretty easily by a 40-15 final on Friday night while #3 LSU took down #25 Mississippi State on Thursday.

BIG EAST: According to reports in the New York Times, two schools from the Big East are in talks with the Atlantic Coast Conference about a possible move there. Syracuse, a founding member of the Big East, and Pittsburgh were reportedly in discussions with ACC officials earlier this month.

200th Helping of Sports Chowdah- Wakefield Stops Sox Bleeding, Pats Have Huge Night in Miami to Kick Off Season

As disappointing as the first week of September was for Boston fans, the last 24 hours seemed to have offset that nicely.

Ordinarily, a record setting performance by Tom Brady in the regular season opener against an AFC East opponent on Monday Night Football would get top billing, but not after Tuesday night in Fenway.



With the Red Sox winning all of two games for the month of September, Tim Wakefield's Groundhog Day-esque quest for career win #200 seemed like an afterthought. After the 3 game sweep in Florida by the Rays over the weekend to give them new life in the Wild Card race, what Boston needed was somebody to stop the bleeding.

Drafted as a first baseman in 1988 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, Wakefield developed his knuckleball while with the Salem Buccaneers of the Carolina League. He was called up to Pittsburgh in 1992 and even won Games 3 and 6 of the 1992 NLCS (both starts against Billerica, MA native Tom Glavine of the Atlanta Braves).

He struggled the following season and was released by Pittsburgh in 1995 during the player's strike. The Red Sox picked him up a few days later and he saw service in Pawtucket and then Boston, filling in for an ailing Roger Clemens.

On July 24, 2011, Time Wakefield recorded career win #199 against the Seattle Mariners. Thanks to an unfortunate series of lackluster starts on his part or the bullpen imploding in close games, the knuckleballer was stuck at #199 for more than 7 weeks. This could've been almost comical if it weren't for the fact that the Red Sox were already swooning in pivotal series against the Yankees, Rangers, Blue Jays and Rays- the latter completing a 3-game sweep of Boston on Sunday, September 11.

After an off night Monday, Wakefield got the start against the Blue Jays at Fenway on Tuesday night. In the early going, Wakefield would give up the Red Sox lead thanks to a 3-run homer off the bat of Jays catcher JP Arencibia in the 2nd and a 2-run homer to Jose Bautista in the 3rd.

With the Jays leading 5-4 in the bottom of the 4th, the Red Sox would take the lead on back to bac solo homers from Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. Unlike last week's game against the Blue Jays, this would hold up with Wakefield getting out of a two-on and nobody out jam in the 5th and having a 1-2-3 bottom of the 6th as the Red Sox would continue adding to their lead in the 6th, thanks to a leadoff double from Carl Carwford and a 3-run blast from Dustin Pedroia to make it a 10-5 game.

From there, the Red Sox bats would continue to break the game wide open, giving Wakefield plenty of run support for his 6 innings of work. Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury made fairly convincing arguments about their inclusion in the AL Most Valuable Player balloting, with Pedroia going 4-5 with 5 RBI and two homers while Ellsbury would go 4-5 with 3 RBI and a solo homer. The Sox would go on to win by an 18-6 final, at long last giving Wakefield career win #200.

This sets a matchup between Ricky Romero (14-10; 3.01 ERA) and John Lackey (12-12; 6.30 ERA) for Wednesday afternoon's game. First pitch will be at 1:35 PM Eastern time at Fenway.

Boston's recent skid has meant that not only have the Yankees started to pull away, but that the Tampa Bay Rays and Los Angeles Angels still have a shot at the Wild Card. While the Yankees had a rough go of it in Southern California dropping two out of three to the Angels, the Bronx Bombers would go on to take the first two games against the Mariners at SafeCo, including closer Mariano Riviera notching career save #600 on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, in Baltimore, the O's rallied against the Tampa to win by a 4-2 margin. So currently, there's 4 games separating the Red Sox and Yankees in the AL East while there Rays are 4 games out from Boston's Wild Card berth. To make things a little more interesting, the Angels are a game and a half behind Tampa for the Wild Card standings and three games behind Texas in the AL West standings.

OTHER SOX NEWS: Just as Kevin Youkilis was coming back form the DL with bursitis and a sports hernia, David Ortiz say out Tuesday's game after experiencing back spasms.

Relief pitcher Bobby Jenks has been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism on Tuesday and is out for the season.

Josh Beckett pitched a side session on Monday and is expected to start Friday night's game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway. Beckett had missed his last start with a sprained right ankle.

PAWTUCKET RED SOX: After winning a division title to close out their regular season, the PawSox were swept from the International League playoffs by the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, dropping the deciding Game 3 by a 3-1 final.

OTHER MLB NEWS: Former Indians, Red Sox and Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez was released from a Florida jail after posting $2500 bond on Tuesday. Ramirez faces domestic abuse and battery charges

NFL: What a game! If you thought Thursday night's opener between New Orleans and Green Bay was something, apparently they saved the best offensive performance for last.

On Monday Night, QBs Tom Brady and Chad Henne decided to dwarf the combined total of more than 700 yards between Brees and Rogers.

Miami got the ball rolling with a nice sustained drive for a TD on their opening possession to take the early 7-0 lead. Miami led the NFL in scoring percentage on their opening drive last season, so apparently some of that carries into this season as well.

Brady would respond on the following drive, marching New England down the field, including a 46 yard completion to WR Matthew Slater and capping the drive with a short Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis TD run to tie things up at 7-7. The Pats would take a 14-7 lead into halftime (Gostkowski missed a FG attempt from mid field right before the end of the half).

Miami managed to tie the game up after a Brady lateral attempt was tipped and picked off by Miami DT Jared Odrick at mid field and run back 39 yards, giving the Dolphins 1st and goal from inside the New England 10. Miami managed to tie the game at 14-14 on a short pass from Henne to WR Brian Hartline.

Going with the no-huddle offense, New England got the ball back and Brady found Deion Branch for some quick pickups before pulling ahead for good on a short pass to Wes Welker to make it a 21-14 game.

The Dolphins would start on their own 11 on their next possession, but move the ball down into the New England red zone and settle for a Dan Carpenter FG to cut into the New England lead and make it 21-17.

Brady would find Aaron Hernandez twice on the next possession, once for a 30 yard pickup into Miami's red zone and once for the TD to make it 28-17 (Gostkowski would add to the lead with a chip shot field goal to make it 31-17 early in the 4th).

Late in the 4th, Miami would put together a drive that started on their own 12 yard line and move down the field, only to sputter on 4th and goal at the New England one yard line. What happens next is pretty much the dagger for Miami (not to mention pretty awesome!).



Welker's 4th quarter TD run ties and NFL-long record for 99 yards and iced the game for New England. Tom Brady went 32-48 with 517 yards and 4 TDs (plus the one interception). The Dolphin's Chad Henne went 30-49 with 416 yards and 2 TDs in the losing effort. The Pats win this one by a 38-24 final.

Interestingly, Buffalo won their season opener against Kansas City and despite trailing most of the night, the Jets were able to pull off the win in their home opener against Dallas, making Miami the only Winless team in the division.

The Patriots will next play their home opener will take place on Sunday at 4:15 PM against the San Diego Chargers.

ICE HOCKEY: Alexander Galimov, the last surviving Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey player on board the ill-fated charter flight that crashed last week has died from his injuries. Galimov, a Yaroslavl native, had burns over 80% of his body when he was moved to Moscow for treatment. Flight Crew member Alexander Sizov, who was also airlifted to Moscow, is the sole survivor of the crash.

BOSTON BRUINS: Forward Marc Savard will get his name on the Stanley Cup after all. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli made the announcement at a charity golf tournament on Monday.

Under NHL rules, in order for a player to get their name on the cup a player must play 41 regular games or one game in the Stanley Cup final. However, Savard played in only 25 games due to post-concussion syndrome. However, a 1994 provision in the rule allows the team to petition the NHL to add a the name of an otherwise ineligible player to the Cup. The Bruins petition on behalf of Savard was approved.

A hit from Colorado's Matt Hunwick on a January 22nd game resulted in Savard's 2nd concussion in 10 months.

The Boston Bruins and NY Islanders played a pair of rookie games this week with the Bruins winning Game 1 by an 8-5 final, but getting blown out of the rink by a final of 7-1 on Tuesday night.



Also worth noting that auditions for the Bruins Ice Girls continued into this week- this round was invitation only.

NCAA FOOTBALL: Offensive Coordinator Kevin Rogers is taking a leave of absence form the team due to health reasons, leaving tight-ends coach Dave Brock to fill in on an interim basis, according to BC football head coach Frank Spaziani.

The news comes just days after the Eagles lost starting cornerback CJ Jones, who would be undergoing surgery after being injured on the opening series of Saturday's 30-3 loss to Central Florida.

The winless BC Eagles will next play the Duke Blue Devils (also winless) at Chestnut Hill this Saturday at 12:30 PM ET.

Over the Big East, UConn lost a close one to the Vanderbilt Commodores, with Vandy coming from behind late to win by a 24-21 final. The 1-1 Huskies will next play the undefeated Iowa State Cyclones at E. Hartford. Kickoff is at 8:00 PM ET.

Quickie Lone Star Sports Chowdah Update for Aug 23rd: Texas-sized Innings Help Sox Stay Ahead of Rangers

Didn't seem that long ago, word of John Lackey starting would make any Red Sox fan worth their salt cringe.



After getting shut out by the Rangers by a 4-0 final Monday night, Lackey got the start for Boston Tuesday going opposite Colby Lewis. And Boston would have to find a way to win without Youkilis or Big Papi (although Ellsbury returned to the lineup for the 1st time in 3 games).



Things started pretty badly for Lewis when Ellsbury got on board with a single to open up the game and then came home on 1B Adrian Gonzalez's 1-out 2-run homer. Boston would then double their lead with an RBI double from former Rangers catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and a Marco Scutaro sac fly in the 2nd. From there, the Red Sox got 2 more as Carl Crawford brought home Josh Reddick and an RBI-double from Ryan Lavarnway to make it 6-0 in the top of the 3rd.



The Rangers were persistent and after giving up three straight singles, Lackey gave up his first run of the night thanks to a bases loaded walk to Elvis Andrus in the bottom half of the inning. The Rangers would go on to cut the lead in half after Josh Hamilton and Micheal Young had back-to-back RBI sac flies to make it a 6-3 game.



However, the Red Sox would start to pull away once again with a 2-out solo homer to Adrian Gonzalez in the top of the 4th. Although Josh Hamilton would get a home run off of Lackey in the bottom of the 5th, the damage was limited to one run after Jacoby Ellsbury ran down a fly ball from 2B Ian Kinsler and Marco Scutaro made a close play at short to get SS Elvis Andrus out at 1st base before Hamilton's at-bat.



Lackey would last 6 and ⅔ innings and depart with a 7-4 lead over the Rangers. Closing the game out wasn't so much a job for the bullpen as it was for the bats on Tuesday night as Marco Scutaro and Dustin Pedroia each had 2-RBI doubles in the top of the 8th.



Boston would go on to win by an 11-5 final (Ian Kinsler would get a solo homer off of Dan Wheeler in the bottom of the 9th). Adrian Gonzalez went 3 for 4 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI on the evening and after a frequently awful start to the season, Lackey is 12-9 with a 5.98 ERA.



The win sets up a rubber game tomorrow where Josh Beckett (10-5; 2.46 ERA) goes on the bump against Matt Harrison (10-8; 3.28 ERA). After missing nearly a week with bursitis in his right heel, it's possible that DH David Ortiz could rejoin the team's lineup on Wednesday.

Extra Helping of Sports Chowdah for Aug 7th- Chronicles of Reddick; Westmoreland Making Strides; Poker in the Rear

RED SOX: After dropping Friday night's series opener, the Red Sox set up a Sunday night rubber game after winning Saturday afternoon's affair by a 10-4 final.



Sunday night's nationally televised game on ESPN featured Josh Beckett starting against Freddy Garcia. As with most Yankees/Red Sox games, this served as a reminder to those being introduced to the sport of baseball that the game has no clock.



The Red Sox seemed to be getting to Garcia early, but were only able to push a solitary run across the plate after loading up the bases with nobody out. Marco Scutaro was able to drive in a run on a single, but after taking the 1-0 lead Boston would do no further damage against Garcia.



The Yankees got the equalizer on an Eduardo Nunez solo homer hit into the Monster seats in the top of the 5th and Beckett left after 6 innings with the game knotted up at 1-1. From there the Bronx Bombers took a 2-1 lead when Matt Albers served up a solo homer to outfielder Brett Gardner.



However, the Sox bats were able to get to Yankees closer Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the 9th. Shortstop Marco Scutaro led off the bottom of the 9th with a double before moving over to 3rd base on Jacoby Ellsbury's sac bunt. Dustin Pedroia flew out to left center, but it was deep enough to bring home Scutaro and tie the game up at 2-2 and send it to extras.



Daniel Bard had a 1-2-3 top of the tenth to keep it a tie game. The bottom of the 10th saw Phil Hughes relieve Rivera. Although Hughes managed to get Youkilis to pop up to lead off the inning, David Ortiz hit a ground-rule double to put the go ahead in scoring position. Darnell McDonald was sent in to pinch run for Big Papi. After intentionally walking Carl Crawford to get to OF Josh Reddick. The rookie made Hughes pay with a walkoff RBI single that plated McDonald, giving Boston the belated win in dramatic fashion.



Despite the Yankees briefly jumping out to sole possession of 1st place with their Friday night victory, Boston wins the weekend series against the Yankees two games to one, giving them sole possession of 1st place in the AL East as of Sunday Night Monday Morning.



The Red Sox hit the road Monday night and head to the Twin Cities to take on the Twins for Monday night. In search of career win #200, starter Tim Wakefield (6-4; 4.99 ERA) goes up against Scott Baker (8-6; 3.01 ERA). The game will be televised nationally on ESPN and gets underway at 7:10 PM ET.



OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Red Sox prospect Ryan Westmoreland has been making steady progress in his rehabilitation a year after surgery to remove a cavernous malformation in his brain stem. After some depth perception problems, Westmoreland was practicing hitting against soft toss and a pitching machine. Now, the organization feels his condition has improved enough to the point where he can face live pitching.



Facing a live pitcher would represent the biggest step this far in Westmoreland's rehab. No specific precautions are being taken with Westmoreland that aren't already in place for any other player.



As for fielding, Westmoreland has been taking full-length fly balls along with other Red Sox draftees at the team's facility in Ft. Meyers. Both the organization and Westmoreland say they're pleased with the progress thus far, but have not put an exact timetable for when he's expected to fully return to playing condtions



OTHER MLB NEWS: Noticeably absent from the weekend series was Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez who was recovering from surgery on his right knee. Of course, the knee reportedly isn't his only problem- reports are circulating that the big money infielder has been participating in an illegal poker ring.



However even if it can be conclusively proven that ARod participated in illicit poker games, unnamed league sources said that it's unlikely Rodriguez would face any fines or suspensions.

Bite Sized Cuppa Sports Chowdah- O Really? Sox Take Rubber Game of Baltimore Series

RED SOX- After technically winning two games in two cities on the same day on Monday (thanks to an 8-run rally in in Baltimore to put away the second game of the day), Boston dropped Game 2 on Tuesday by a 6-2 final. This set up a deciding game 3 on Wednesday afternoon in a sweltering Camden Yards.

After getting into a 1-out bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the second, Red Sox starter Andrew Miller managed to escape by getting O's catcher Craig Tatum to ground into a double-play.

Miller would soon get some run support thanks to a Jacoby Ellsbury solo homer in the top of the 3rd. That was actually all the Red Sox would need, although Ellsbury had another solo homer to his credit in the 7th inning. A bases-loaded walk to Carl Crawford and Jason Varitek grounding into a fielder's choice with Josh Reddick at third rounded out scoring in Boston's 4-0 shutout of the Orioles.

Miller went 5 and two-thirds, allowing two hits, giving up 6 walks and striking out 3 batters. The bullpen came on and didn't allow a baserunner for Baltimore, with Papelbon closing out the game on a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th.

Boston has now won a second consecutive 3-game series with an AL East opponent since coming back from the All Star game. The Red Sox will be returning to Fenway on Friday night to take on the Seattle Mariners. Seattle ace Feliz Hernandez (8-8; 3.26 ERA) is scheduled to go up against John Lackey (7-8; 6.70 ERA) with a first pitch at 7:10.

OTHER MLB NEWS: With the non-waiver trade deadline coming up at the end of the month, the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox are reportedly top among the likely destinations for Mets outfielder Carlos Beltran.

While the Red Sox have expressed an interest in Beltran to the struggling Mets, Boston's front office feels that the Mets may be asking too much in terms of prospects, especially after the offseason trade that brought Gonzalez over from San Diego. Beltran has been batting .293 this season with 15 homers and 61 RBI.

Reports from the west coast indicate that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier has also publicly expressed an interest in playing for Boston. Ethier has been batting .299 with 9 home runs and 44 RBI.

Big Ol' Bite of Sports Chowdah- Bruins Bite Back in Game 3; Sox-Yanks Resume in Bronx

STANLEY CUP FINAL- Wow- I'm pretty sure what happened on Monday night was what most people would call a 'statement game'.

Things got pretty quiet not too far into the first Stanley Cup final game to take place in Boston in 21 years after a late, open-ice hit by Vancouver's Aaron Rome on Nathan Horton. With his neck in a brace, the winger was wheeled out on a stretcher and Vancouver was shorthanded for 5 minutes, a penalty on which the Bruins weren't able to capitalize.

As it turns out, it was one of the few power plays on the night that the B's didn't score, including a couple of Canucks power plays.

Andrew Ference would break the scoreless deadlock just 11 seconds into the 2nd period. This would be followed by Mark Recchi's power play goal 4 minutes and 22 seconds in to make it 2-0.

Now- as glad as most Boston fans were that the Bruins got out the the early lead, they were also acutely aware of the Bruins inability to hold onto even bigger leads in significant games, and the last thing they wanted was to fall into an 0-3 series hole at home.

Brad Marchand allayed those fears with a nifty shorthanded goal at the 11:30 mark and just to make things even more interesting, David Krejci tallies and even-strength goal with just over 4 minutes remaining in the second.

And oddly enough- they were just getting started. The onslaught continued into the second half of the 3rd period, with the B's getting on the board thanks to ANOTHER shorthanded goal, this time from Daniel Paille at the 11:38 mark to make it 5-0. The Canucks would get their only goal of the night on a Jannik Hansen tally, but the Bruins would close out the game with three MORE goals (Recchi, Kelly and Ryder) to end Game 3 with an exclamation point and an 8-1 final. Boston takes a bite out of the Canucks series lead and now trails 2 games to 1.

Tim Thomas stopped 40 of 41 shots faced while Roberto Luongo allowed 8 goals on 38 shots on goal- leading some at the sports bar I was nursing a few Sam Adams to wonder if a cardboard cutout of The Most Interesting Man in the World from the Dos Equis advertisements might be able to spell Luongo for a bit.

Although it took a little longer than I had hoped, I'm glad to see such offensive production coming from the Bruins after getting shut out in Game 1 and losing in cringeworthy fashion in Game 2. Hopefully this is something they can sustain and Vancouver will have a difficult time adjusting to.

Alex Burrows seen postgame

OTHER STANLEY CUP BITS: Canucks defenseman Aaron Rome has received a 4-game suspension for his late his on Nathan Horton. Horton is expected to miss the rest of the Stanley Cup finals with a severe concussion.

Canucks winger Alex Burrows had managed to avoid suspension earlier in the series after biting the gloved finger of Patrice Bergeron during an altercation in Game 1.
MLB: The Red Sox trip to Yankee stadium got off to a promising start on Tuesday night when Boston got out to an early 3-0 lead thanks to a solo homer by Jacoby Ellsbury to lead off the game, followed by an Adrian Gonzalez RBI triple that plated Dustin Pedroia and a Kevin Youkilis sac-fly.

The Bronx Bombers were able to get a run back in the bottom of the 1st on a Robinson Cano RBI single, but the Sox managed to chase Yankees starter Freddy Garcia from the mound after a 2-out Dustin Pedroia RBI single made it a 4-1 game.

Luis Ayala came on to replace Garcia for an inning and a third (only giving up a walk) before being spelled by Hector Nosei who went 6 inning, giving up 3 hits- although one of them was a David Ortiz 2-run homer to make it a 6-1 game briefly.

Lester, in turn would give up a 2-RBI double to Nick Swisher in the bottom of the 5th and the Yankees would eat into Boston's lead to make it a 6-3 game. New York would get another run back in the bottom of the 9th with a Jorge Posada 2-out RBI single to plate Brett Gardner, but Papelbon would strike out Alex Rodriguez to end the ballgame. Red Sox hang on to win by a 6-4 final with Lester going six innings, giving up 8 hits, 3 earned runs, striking out five and walking one.

Although it wasn't pretty, Papelbon's save was the 12th of the season and career save #200. Papelbon reached that milestone in his 359th career game, becoming the quickest pitcher to reach that mark in the MLB (previously it was longtime Yankees closer Mariano Rivera who reached in 382 games).

Wednesday's game will be televised on ESPN at 7:05 ET and features Tim Wakefield (2-1; 4.40 ERA) going up against AJ Burnett (6-3; 3.86 ERA).

OTHER SOX/YANKEES NOTES: SS Marco Scutaro returned from the DL and a rehab stint in Pawtucket, where he was hitting .455 in 3 games. Scutaro went on the DL May 16th with a strained oblique and went 1 for 4 in his return to Boston.

-Yankees 1B Mark Teixera was struck by a pitch along the knee in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday night. He was helped off the field and Jorge Posada pinch-ran for him. X-Rays came back negative, although he will be re-evaluated on Wednesday.

- Papelbon faces a three game suspension for his conduct during Saturday's game against Oakland at Fenway Park after the closer rushed towards home plate umpire Tony Randazzo and bumped him while arguing balls and strikes. Papelbon is appealing the suspension and can still play until the appeal is dismissed.

-Sox Relief pitcher Bobby Jenks threw just 4 pitches on Tuesday night's game before leaving with back spasms. The pitcher is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Wednesday.